Top All Time Kansas Distance guys

fantastic stuff! How about State Indoor? I think they discontinued it around 1990.

why did they discontinue the State Indoor meet?

KevinM wrote:Point of clarification: Emporia was ranked 17th pre-season in 1994 after returning 4 of 7 (including 1, 2, 4, 5) from a team that was honorable mention in the Harrier rankings in 1993. That team didn't end up ranked at the end of the season (which is obviously what matters, and was, I assume, your point), as SMNW upset EHS and began their current win streak.

Thank you for the correction. I just looked up the results of the meet you refer to and saw how close it was -- 2 freakin' points! My brother was on a team that was supposed to win the state title but was surprised, by Manhatten I think. From the older brothers' perspective it was a little sad to see them so hard on themselves after the race.

I would guess because it was the only indoor meet most teams ran in the whole year, since by law track practice could not start in Kansas in those days, until the last week of February, then the State Indoor meet was just a month later. Most teams were lucky to get in 1 outdoor meet before the State Indoor; so it really wasn't practical, like in college when you are training for the indoor season starting in Decemember and start indoor season in early January. {just my guess}. too bad, cause other states allowed indoor racing and an earlier start.

Ah, the 880’s at state indoor… dodging the steel girders a couple of inches from the inside lane in a big pack of elbows on the first turn. Peterson and Brown getting physical on the last turn of one of their duels. Bob Bornkessel running a 1:55 880 in shiny gold adidas 9.9’s (probably working on his base for the Olympic trials intermediate hurdles that summer).

Seeing Bob Barratti for the first time: barrel-chested, five o’clock shadow, decked out in a deluxe blood-red velour warm-up suit gawked at by psyched-out pimply-faced boys in scruffy gray team sweatsuits. Up in the balcony at Ahearn you could only see one straightaway, so it was like a cross country race: a lot of crowd ruckus over something happening out of sight then a brief flash of the pack, and gone again, eight times for the mile.

That dirt/clay track at Kansas State was pretty fast. I never ran on the tartan track which was installed in the late 70s, but it couldn't have been a whole lot faster than that old track. I had my wallet stolen in the locker room there, at State Indoor.

....or watching Randy Smith serve notice that his senior year was going to be something special in 1971, when he blasted a big PR in the prelims; then coasted in for an easy finals win.

Having run on the dirt inside Allen and the tartan track later at Allen and Ahearn there's no comparison... tartan is a lot faster.

WYCO LOCO

Were you able to find any results for State Indoor?

Looking over the old results something came to mind and that was how good JUCO's use to be back in the day...

At Hutch JUCO we had the following my FR. year:

Ted Crank...3rd two mile %A...JC champion at 1500 meters

Jeff Rosenow 2nd #A @mile and 2nd in CC

Randy Pierce...4th CC in 3A

Bill Robinson...3rd 2 mile 4A, 3rd CC 4A

David Zuk...3rd 2 mile 5A 5th CC 5A

Chuck Foster...6th 1A CC

Mitch Erlich...5th 3A CC

Dennis Weber 4th mile 3A and 2nd mile 3A, 5th 2 mile 3A, 9th CC 3A

Randy Gaines...4th 800 5A

Terry Drake 4th mile 3A

Tim Rocholtz...14th CC 3A

I don't remember all the results but we gave a lot of four schools a nice run for their money...most of these guys went on to run in four year schools...many at the D-1 level.

I think this is a solid group of athletes put together at a JUCO...I don't think you still see this anymore...

I also remember Butler County being very good as well...

historian.... wrote:

WYCO LOCO

Were you able to find any results for State Indoor?

No clue. I know I saw some in the results already listed. So if you click on track results, you may find both indoor & outdoor listed. I believe 1976 has both listed.

Hutch JUCO had an excellent X-C team in the mid 70s. They upset some good 4 year schools at various meets.

KC, that Hutch roster brings back some memories since I competed against many of those guys. Take that team with that ability now and they would knock off most of the DI schools in the area save for Kansas and Okie State. Crank, Rosenow, Weber, Robinson were all serious talents... and you were half bad yourself... ;}

[quote]Howdy Doody wrote:

Bob Bornkessel running a 1:55 880 in shiny gold adidas 9.9’s (probably working on his base for the Olympic trials intermediate hurdles that summer).

R U sure about this? He won the 880 at State Indoor in '68, in 1:55? I don't recall Gish or Taylor ever telling that story. The school record is 1:54. Why didn't Bob ever run one outdoors and run a 1:52 or so? (at least 1 time; as he was obviously busy doubling in the hurdles and sprints, most meets). Pistol Pete never mentioned that one to me; though he did tell me about battling Vinson, Browne and Gerant.

You will find a lot of talent at some JUCO's now......the only diffrence is that they will NOT be from Kansas.

I'm going to disagree with that comment. Butler & JCCC both have some good Kansas talent. Didn't Mark Menefee run at Hutch before going to KU & going on to run a Trials Qualifer?

Wyco Loco wrote:

Didn't Mark Menefee run at Hutch before going to KU & going on to run a Trials Qualifer?

Yes. Mark ran at Hutch for one year before coming to KU. He spent a year in Belgium on an exchange after HS, then Hutch, then KU.

I realize there is going to be individual talent go the JC route on occasion...but I do not think the JC's are as prevelent or as deep in talent as they once were...when I was coaching I didn't see that much US talent in the JC's but there was plenty of foreign talent to be had at the Kansas Juco's...

Would you say that's in direct corelation with there just not being as deep of distance talent in the state these days? Not to mention many of our top runners going out of state.